Athena

Awww, what a cute dog ! I'm not too keen on snakes, I'm glad to hear she's not poisonous. They can be very nice to look at (so by all means post some photos )! I just wouldn't want any near me .

x That's clever !

Someone has given me some Dutch books , mainly books by Stephen King that she wasn't going to read anymore. I haven't yet sorted them out (I already have some in English but don't have others). To be honest, they smell a bit like smoke and I don't like that smell at all . I hope to sort them in a while though.

The most famous one in the Netherlands are the Baantjer books (by A. C. Baantjer, series De Cock), but I don't know if many have been translated into English, to be honest. I've also been enjoying Wycliffe books by W. J. Burley. Agatha Christie is on my TBR and wishlist.

I hope you know I don't mean any offense .

Apparently I've read 139 books this year so far. I should be able to make it to 140 at least! I exceeded my target by far. To be fair though, I read a lot more shorter books and I've re-read more books, too (most noticably during the read-a-thons). I suppose there is one upside to being too tired to watch DVDs or play video games, reading is a lot less tiring for me so I've been doing more reading (although lately I'm sometimes too tired for that too..). I'll be compiling a list of favourite reads per genre near the end of this year and I'll be making a post with my reading statistics for the year.

J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Genre: Fantasy, Children's/YA Format: Paperback Pages: 317 Synopsis (GoodReads): Harry Potter, along with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, is about to start his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry can't wait to get back to school after summer holidays (who wouldn't if they lived with the horrible Dursleys?). But when Harry arrives at Hogwarts, the atmosphere is tense. There's an escaped mass murderer on the loose, and the sinister prison guards of Azkaban have been called in to guard the school . . . My thoughts: Since it was the read-a-thon I thought I'd re-read another Harry Pottter book. The last four though are quite big, so not really suitable for a quick read during the read-a-thon. I'll have to see what to do later. This book was better than I remembered it to be. I really enjoyed reading about all the school stuff, the lessons in particular and the things that happened in Hogwarts. The rivalry with Malfoy is starting to get a bit old, yes he's mean, we know it, don't rise to his bait, etc. I felt the book didn't really ramp up the tension a lot until in the last bit, but that was fine by me. As I said, I enjoyed reading about the school stuff very much so I really didn't mind this at all! But it felt the pacing was different than in some of the other books (it suited me just fine though). I loved the description of all things magical and different in the Harry Potter world, ie. the candies they eat etc. I read this book before in Dutch, now I read it in English. I think it's even better in English, though some of the Dutch translations have been pretty well done. I look forward to continuing re-reading the series. In my memory book four was the one I liked the least, so I look forward to see if it'll be that way or whether I'll appreciate it more this time around, and it was more because when I read it in the past I wasn't in the mood or anything like that. I've read it before in Dutch and not English, this may make a slight difference as well. Rating: ***** (9/10)

x No, as far as I know, there isn't. I have two other books by him on my shelf but I hadn't read one of his before. I haven't read anything by Kate Atkinson, I have the first book in the Jackson Brodie series on my wishlist. Thanks for the recommendation, I might have to look into it more soon !

x Yes, I suppose that's true. Wow, I agree, if you're a good friend you understand such a thing. Well done on you! x x Congratulations !

Congrats on finishing your plan! You've got some great reads on your new plan, I hope you enjoy all the books !

I'm not one of those people who'd go hunting for gifts. I'm happy to abide my time and get them when it's time, I trust the other person or people to buy me something nice. I don't go pestering anybody . Someone I know is pretty terrible with it, their partner has to really hide the gifts otherwise they'll find them and open them , that's just stupid and childish, in my opinion . But asking for clues isn't too bad .

x I agree, both those things are really annoying !

x Sounds interesting! I love book lists too.

Sometimes a break is what we need. I hope you'll feel more like reading in a while.

Congrats on the new books ! I hope you enjoy them.

x Awwww ! That really sucks. You can scream all you want ! I hope things will turn to the better for you soon .

x It's very interesting to hear how the two of you do things. It's nice the two of you do a lot of things together . That's what I'd want to do, too, later on. Sometimes I can't believe though, how there are some men out there, who work and whose wife works just as much, and they still insist that the wife has to do everything! This has me . So oldfashioned! (it was on Dr. Phil a while ago) [/rant] In the end it's about compromise between two people and a situation that they're both happy with. I don't believe one needs to disinfect one's own TV remote! But I do believe people should wash their hands after having been to the toilet (with normal soap), or after cleaning something dirty etc.

x I can understand this, Marley's so great to read about . x x I'm glad to hear you liked it, though it's a shame you didn't like it as much as the first one. I've read the books (1-4) when I was a lot younger and also enjoyed the first one more than the second one. x x That's nice to hear! It's on my TBR. I hope you enjoy the whole book . x x I hope you enjoy it !

(note: removed some emoticons from quotes otherwise the forum wouldn't let me post) x You're welcome ! x x You're welcome, I'm glad it helped ! x x I'm sorry to hear you didn't have much time to read. I hope you'll have more time in January .

I always read the Amazon blurb when I buy it (unless it's part of a series), but by the time I get around to reading the book, I always read the blurb at the back of the book (and will have forgotten the Amazon stuff). Those are usually not spoilery.

Well done !

Answers of 09-12-2013: Your favourite read of the year? I couldn't possibly pick just one book! Your favourite author of the year? I'm really not sure, there are too many I really liked. Your most read author of the year? I read 9 books by Roald Dahl, followed by 5 books by Susan Hatler. Your favourite book cover of the year? I don't know, there are so many pretty ones. The book you abandoned (if there was more than one, the one you read least of)? Charles Dickens - Christmas Stories. I loved A Christmas Carol but I didn't care much for the other four stories. I abandoned the last story, called The Haunted Man. The book that most disappointed you? Charles Dickens - Christmas Stories. I'd heard good things about Charles Dickens's writing but I found it to be hard to read and understand. The funniest book of the year? I think it'd have to be Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time. I loved this book. Your favourite literary character this year? I'm not sure what's meant with this question. Does the character have to come from literary fiction? Your favourite children's book this year? Ann M. Martin - The BabySitter's Club 4: Mary Anne Saves the Day Your favourite classic of the year? It'd have to be Anna Sewell - Black Beauty. I quite enjoyed reading this book. Your favourite non-fiction book this year? I already have Marley & Me listed as favourite biography, so I'm going with an information book, A Field Guide to Earthlings by Ian Ford. Your favourite biography this year? I really loved John Grogan - Marley & Me. Secondly I really liked Susan Hill - Howards End is on the Landing. Your favourite collection of short stories this year? I think it'd be Penny Vincenzi - Love in the Afternoon and Other Delights or, a re-read, Arthur C. Clarke - The Other Side of the Sky. Your favourite poetry collection this year? I don't read poetry. Your favourite illustrated book of the year? I think this would be Matilda by Roald Dahl. I just love this story and the illustrations. Your favourite publisher of the year? I don't think I really have a favourite publisher. Your favourite audiobook of the year?[/b] I don't listen to audiobooks. Your favourite re-read of the year? It'd have to be the Emma Huntington series by Sinéad Moriarty, closely followed by reading some of the BabySitter's Club books by Ann M. Martin. I also really loved re-reading IT by Stephen King.

Matt Groening and Others - The Simpsons Holiday Humdinger Genre: Information Format: Paperback Pages: 142 Synopsis (GoodReads): Season's Greetings from the Simpsons and creator Matt Groening with an all new collection of Christmas curiosities and winter wonders that'll warm your heart and tickle your fancy. If you? yearning for yuletide yarns for young and old, Matt Groening, the Kris Kringle of comics and the creator of The Simpsons, has the perfect stocking stuffer for you. What winter holiday celebration would be complete without: sleigh rides, jingle bells, reindeer games, happy little elves, fruit cakes, radioactive Christmas trees, snow mums, defective toys, grimacing Grinches, secretive Santas, miserly Scrooges, and New Year's resolutions you will never keep? So, deck the halls with The Simpsons and be of good cheer with glad tidings of joy that will last through the year! My thoughts: Since it'll be Christmas in a few weeks I thought this would be a good time to read this book. I recently bought it at a book fair. This book is a collection of stories. I quite liked most of the stories. There were a lot of references to things like geek culture (ie. Star Trek) but also to the Simpsons themselves. I quite liked the former. Because I don't know the Simpsons all that well I feel I didn't get as much out of the book, as someone who loves the Simpsons and has seen most episodes of the TV show. If I was a big Simpsons fan I'd probably give the book a higher rating. A lot of the stories reference famous Christmas stories, which was nice in my opinion. The illustrations were beautiful and colourful. I liked less the pages that seemed to have advertisements in them for things in the Simpsons world, these were a bit lost on me often. I did rate all the individual stories but I don't really feel like typing it all out, so I won't. Most stories got an 8/10 from me, a few got lower and a few higher. I thought the book was very Christmassy (I particularly loved the illustrations where Marge has Christmas decorations in her hair, it was only like that in one story, but I thought that was funny) and enjoyable. My only problem was really my lack of Simpson knowledge, I probably would've understood certain character cameos etc. better if I knew the Simpsons better. Rating: **** (8/10)

Dirk van Weelden - Literair Overleven Genre: Information Format: Paperback Pages: 79 Synopsis (me): This book, written by an author, is an essay of what it takes for literature to survive in the modern day and age (the book was published in 2008). My thoughts: I recently bought this book pretty cheaply and decided to read it for the read-a-thon because it was thin and about books. I particularly enjoyed the introduction of this book, in which the process of writing is described, using a Donald Duck story (from the magazine) as an example. The story is described with quite a bit of detail, which I quite enjoyed since I loved reading the Donald Duck magazine when I was a child. The book talks about various aspects of literature, economy being a very prominent one. The book says more and more publishers are only selling the books that sell the most. There is a piece in it about the author's writing life and how it works, also money wise. I don't know anything about the author or his other books, I should say, but it was interesting to read. You don't get a lot of money for a book, unless you're really famous and selling lots of books. There's also a chapter in the book about what's called de 'langestaarttheorie', the long tail theory. I don't know much about economics, but the book states (citing a source) that with this theory a lot of books are being sold of very few authors and of many authors very few books are being cold (like a head with a long tail?). I thought it was interesting to read about. It's true that there are a lot of books out there but in the 'mainsteam' community only some get attention. On this forum I wouldn't call us mainstream exactly, I should point out! There's also a bit in it about how less and less people are reading books. And a bit about literary magazines. I should point out that this book was published in 2008 and while it lightly hints upon ebooks, it doesn't go into much detail about them. I think it was published before ebooks really took off in the Netherlands. Back then there wasn't anybody self publishing etc. I did skip a few paragraphs of this book, particularly towards the end. I wasn't interested in what they were about, didn't understand it exactly. Sometimes the wording was a bit difficult to follow. Rating: **** (7/10)

A. C. Baantjer - De Cock 2: De Cock en de Wurger op Zondag Genre: Detective Format: Paperback Pages: 95 Synopsis (me): De Cock is being called back from his holiday to try and help with an unsolved murder of a prostitute. My thoughts: Since there was a read-a-thon, I read another thin detective book. Like the other Baantjers I've read, this one was also quite enjoyable. One of my complaints with a few of the other books was the amount of characters. Here I was able to follow the story well and didn't struggle with the amount of characters, perhaps there were less of them or they were better explained or more memorable, I don't know. I quite enjoyed reading this story. It was interesting to hear bits about the world of prostitution back in the 70s in Amsterdam (the book was written in 1975). There were a few old-fashioned words but they didn't bother me, I could usually understand the meaning by looking at the whole sentence. I quite liked this book. Rating: ***** (9/10)